Engulfed
by Megalomaniac8
Summary: A story that follows the daily routines of an un-named scavenger lost in the depths of the Capital Wasteland with nothing but his dog to accompany him. He has to face many hardships, including radiation, hunger, thirst and depression. As he goes deeper into the darkness, so does his mind.
1. 1 The Metro

_The air in the tunnel was thin and dry, small pockets of radiation dotted throughout the framework of the subway. Rats and other undesirable creatures could be heard scuttering around inside the pipes and vents. The whole area was littered with bodies of humans, mutants, animals and pretty much anything else. This place was rarely visited because of the high radiation levels, but some people tried their luck to find some of the treasures that were rumoured to stay down here, in the murky depths of the underground. Some people called these people insane, others brave but one thing that is certain about them. Most of them end up dead... Or worse._

I grabbed onto the latch at the top of the tunnel, pulling fiercely on it in an attempt to get the door to budge. It was rusty but sure enough, it moved. Dust flooded out from the gaps between the two doors, along with rust that was scraped off. I put a hand on the top of my head and pulled the gas-mask over my face, taking my Chinese assault rifle off of its sling and placing it into weathered hands, dotted with cuts and scars from my previous encounters. I felt something breathing on my leg, I quickly looked down to see my dog sitting there, with something in his mouth. I leaned down to him and set my rifle down.

"Drop it boy." I said in a friendly tone, gently moving my hand up to his mouth.

He growled slightly and stepped back, looking up at me.

"Come on Scar, just drop the damned thing." I grunted at him, putting my hand under the object.

He whimpered and placed it in my hand, circling around me before clearing some distance and chasing his own tail. I smirked and looked down at the object, it was a small box, locked with a rusty padlock. I unsheathed my knife and used the handle to hit the lock until it broke off. After doing this, I sheathed the knife and flicked the lid of the box up.

Inside it was some sort of pre-war device. I gently touched it with my free hand, causing a light on it to turn on. I raised an eyebrow and shut the lid, placing the box inside my rucksack.

"I'll deal with that later." I said to myself, picking my rifle back up and gripping it, using my thumb to turn the safety off.

I walked over to Scar and kneeled down to him. "Stay up here boy, don't leave until I get back, got it?" I told him, petting him on the head.

Scar looked up at me with big eyes, his tongue hanging outside of his mouth with a thick layer of saliva dripping onto the ground.

"Close enough..." I said and stood up, turning to the tunnel entrance.

I slowly made my way over to it, looking down in the darkness that engulfed the interior. I moved my hand under the barrel of my rifle and turned on a small flash light, illuminating the stair case.

I took one step and felt my muscles tightening. I let out a long sigh and started walking down the stairs.

I could see the bottom of the stair case but before I could make it down I stepped on something that caused me to topple down head first, lying in a heap at the bottom of the stairs.

I rubbed the top of my head and noticed the object that caused me to fall lying on my torso, it was a disembodied arm.

I scrambled backwards and threw it off, quickly jerking my body back up onto its feet as I frantically looked around the room I was in.

It was rather empty, some seats were dotted around and there was some booths that tickets used to be sold in. I wiped some dust off the glass on my mask before heading over to the booth, looking inside and shining the light in. There was a cash register so I leant in and opened it. It was full of pre-war money so I just grabbed it all out of there and put it in my bag, standing up and rolling my shoulders.

Some sort of scuttering could be heard behind a door, I raised my rifle to it and slowly started walking over, my footsteps squeaking on the hard floor. I grabbed onto the door handle and started to slowly pull, going in rifle barrel first. Before I could open the door fully a dozen rats came running out, scampering out of the room and down another flight of stairs. I let out a sigh of relief and looked in the room.

Inside was hundreds of flies making their self at home inside the rotten carcass of a random scavenger who had his guts spilled across the floor. There were several rad-roach bodies surrounding him and there was also a rad-roach sized hole in the wall with several tiny footsteps heading inside.

It's times like these that I become thankful that I have a gas-mask, I could only begin to imagine what that smelt like. I looked around the room and pulled open all of the drawers, swatting flies occasionally. Most of the drawers were empty apart from one.

"Yes!" I yelled out, taking out a laser pistol from the drawer and looking inside it, there was still an energy cell in it. I was beyond happy, laser pistols were in high demand these days. I grinned widely and put the laser pistol into the empty holster around my waist, before quickly making my way out of the room and slamming the door shut.

I slowly trodded over to the stair case that I seen the rats run down, walking down slowly. I glanced up every now and then and seen the room I was leaving slowly become engulfed in the darkness. It's times like these that remind me of one crucial point.

The whole world is engulfed in darkness.

**This is my first story on this so this first chapter is pretty short, feel free to leave a review. If people like it then I'll post more chapters so yeah, thanks for reading and I might see you again.**


	2. 2 In Deep

The staircase seemed to go on forever, the gentle beam from the flash-light on my rifle illuminated a small area in-front of me but it wasn't enough to get a bearing on my surroundings.

I step on something, causing my whole body to jerk backwards. I quickly lower the light to my feet and catch a glimpse of a small tin can rolling down the stairs, clanging around and causing the sound to echo throughout the vicinity.

I let out a long sigh waiting for the rattling to stop before slowly pulling my weight down the staircase.

I felt something wet under my sole, upon looking down I realised the floor was completely flooded. I kicked my foot out a little, causing the water to ripple before slinging my rifle and leaning down to tuck my trouser legs in my boots.

After this, I set the rifle back into my hands and started to trudge through the murky water, there was an extremely intensive light up ahead, I made it my priority to get to that.

I could hear something moving in the walls. "Rad-roaches..." I thought to myself, hoping that they weren't hungry.

My foot brushed against something and I noticed that a skeleton was floating along past me, dressed in a hazardous material suit. I put my arm on the bodies shoulder and turned it around onto its back, feeling along the suit.

I took a small blade from my pocket and cut up the suit from the belly to the neck, tearing it open. The body was completely decomposed and anything of value on him had long deteriorated into nothing, I continued going, sheathing the knife and running my hand along the grimy wall as I went along.

I reached the light and it turned out it coming from the front of an old train, somehow power was still getting to it. I pulled the doors open and stepped inside, looking around.

The interior of the train was littered with decomposed bodies and luggage bags, some with their contents spilled along the ground. There was old clothes, personal affects and many other items lying on the ground. However, only one caught my eye, a child's teddy bear.

The teddy was in the arms of a small skeleton, I walked over and tried to gently pry it from the long passed child's hand but the fingers snapped off and the skeleton fell off the seat, crumbling to dust as it hit the ground.

I looked down at the mangy teddy's button eyes, feeling a strange feeling. Even though the events that caused this happened hundreds of years ago. I can't help but feel something has been stolen from me. I can only dream what a regular childhood was, small things like these just make me think.

I stood there for at least five minutes, my eyes filling up as I stared at this kid's toy. Thinking about what I've missed out on.

I slowly began to lose grip and the toy slid out from my grasp, causing me to snap out of my trance. The inside of my mask was all steamed up but I couldn't do anything about it. That guy was in a haz-mat suit for a reason.

I went back on my travels, heading out of the train cart and moving along the tracks, I noticed a long wire coming out of a power transformer and heading towards a maintenance room. I thought this might give me some answers to why the train's lights were on, so I followed it.

I walked up to the door and slowly opened it, a blinding light came from the room and I pulled my arm up to my face.

"Ah, shit!" I stepped back, pulling my hand away slowly to be greeted by a shotgun barrel.

"No sudden movements boy." Were the words of the old man holding the weapon. "Buckshot is scarce around here, wouldn't want to waste it on your face."

"Woah, let's not get too hasty here... Sir." I said, trying to defuse the situation. "Just put the gun down and we'll... Talk. I mean you no harm." I added, my voice shaky.

"I'm sure you don't, that's what the last one said, then he took my food." He pressed the barrel against my mask. "Why don't you just turn around and go back the way you came."

"I'm just a scavenger, I'm only searching down here, I'll leave your room alone." I responded, pleading to him.

"What don't you get son?" He asked, his finger on the trigger. "This whole metro is mine, you're lucky I haven't painted the wall with your brains already."

"Please man, just put the gun down. I'm sure you don't need all of the junk down here." My voice changed into a louder tone, trying to put more authority in my voice.

"I won't ask you again." He concluded, easing the trigger down slowly.

"Alright, I'll go-" I stopped in the middle of the sentence, bobbing my head to the side and getting a grip of the gun's barrel.

The old man pulled on the trigger, sending buckshot into the wall beside me and causing my ears to ring.

"Let go of that gun you idiot!" He yelled, frantically pulling the gun.

I took one hand off of the gun and unsheathed the switch-blade I had, flicking the blade out and ramming it into the old man's wrist.

He yelped and let go, falling back and holding his arm, putting pressure on the wound.

I quickly twisted the gun around and aimed at his head, stepping back. "Don't move a muscle." I shouted at him, pumping the shotgun.

The old man didn't respond, he just looked up at me, his eyes welling up.

"Get up." I said to him, keeping my finger on the trigger.

He stayed sitting, just looking at me.

"I won't kill you, I just want to scavenge down the tunnel. I'll give you your gun back." I added, trying to reassure him.

"Just pull the trigger boy." He said, reverting his view to his feet, sobbing slightly. "I'm a worthless old man, I can't even look after myself now..."

I muttered fuck under my breath and lowered the gun, looking down at him. "I said I won't kill you man, just get up." I said, offering him my hand.

"No, I'm asking you to just shoot me, you'd be doing me a favour." He said, pushing my hand away.

"Why do you need me to shoot you, if you want to die so badly, why didn't you just do it yourself?" I asked, moving my hand down to my side.

"Because, suicide is a one way ticket to hell." He exclaimed, moving up onto his knees and shutting his eyes. Putting his hands together. "Dear lord, please accept me into heaven as my time has come today, this man has came to deliver me unto you and I yield my life. I thank you for everything you've gave me and I'm ready to be delivered into your arms. Amen." He finished, opening his eyes.

By the time he was done I had already raised the gun, looking down at him. "Are you sure?" I asked him for a final time, easing the trigger down.

He just simply nodded, accepting his fate.

I shut my eyes and pulled the trigger, sending a 12 gauge round into his head, killing him instantly.

I drew my eyes away from his mangled corpse and slung the shotgun over my shoulder, taking a glance into the room that the man came from, my eyes widening.

**After some wait, I got round to making a second chapter. It's a tad longer than the last one and if it gets the same good reception. Then I'll devote more time into making these.**


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